Complicatedchapter 2 is up
by Emma0505
Summary: This is my first attempt at DC fanfic. It is AU and Pacey and Joey did not grow up together. It is a PJ fic but starts out DJ. Hopefully all other things will be explained as the story unfolds. I had problems with spacing and italics when this uploaded. I
1. Chapter 1

"A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the boot-strap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or, he can rise above it and never forget it and keep compassion and understanding in his heart for those he has left behind him in the cruel up climb." Betty Smith

A small yellow, green and orange hook rug covered the chipped vinyl floor. The kitchen walls were painted a deep, rich red and the rug decidedly didn't match. It also drew attention to the condition of the floor instead of it's intended purpose of masking it. Her mother had made that rug. The fabric had been stored in bags under the coffee table for years until Joey finally entered Kindergarten and her mother's rug making career began and ended with the slightly lopsided circular rug.

Joey offered her sister a slight smile as she squeezed by the table to grab a cup of coffee. Bessie gestured toward the pancakes on the stove and Joey took a few, warming them up in the microwave before joining her sister at the table. Bessie was sitting in Bodie's usual spot reading the paper, using a coffee mug that could easily be mistaken for a large soup bowl.

Bessie had showed incredible restraint waiting for her to share what had brought her back to Capeside. A weekend had turned into five days and she couldn't explain it now any better than she could when she had first come home.

"Bodie took Alexander to the market with early this morning."

Her nephew had recently turned eight and there was nothing left of the baby that she had left behind, a reminder that even if you are unaware of it, time marches on.

Turn on your heart light.

Let it shine wherever you go.

Let it make a happy glow

For the entire world to see.

Joey cringed burning her lip on her first sip of hot coffee as the cell phone ring startled her. She could feel Bessie's eyes on her. She remembered that Alexander had been playing with her phone last night. The game of snake seemed to fascinate him for hours on end and when the Icehouse was busy as it was last night, anything that keeps him quite is a good thing. She had turned the phone off last night and could only assume that Alexander had picked it up for another game this morning not aware that his aunt wanted to be unavailable.

She picked up the phone turning it off with her back to Bessie. "Hello, hello" she repeated feeling slightly silly. She remembered calling time and temperature and offering a trite apology pretending it was Dawson. The bad thing about being brought up by an older sister who had a slightly wild side is that you get away with nothing. Joey still remembered the humiliation of being driven to the Leery house to apologize in person.

The cell phone had been a gift from Dawson last Christmas. He had dropped hints for weeks, making Joey think that she was being given a different type of ring, one that symbolized the future. He had been so caught up in congratulating himself on how perfect the gift was that he didn't notice her stunned silence once she had opened the phone. She had tossed the phone aside thinking how clever he was to hide a ring in a cell phone box. She wondered what it said about a relationship to have a childhood song represent it, one that seemed more of a tribute to Stephen Spielberg and their past.

"You can't keep avoiding him, Jo." It was the first time that Bessie had broached the subject of Dawson and as much as she wanted to lash out she stopped herself because of the concern on her sister's face.

"You'll work it out, Jo." Bessie gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. You always do, ya know..."

Joey's fingers ran across the small round diamond on her right hand. She couldn't recall a time when her dreams didn't involve Dawson Leery. Her childhood has been intertwined with his. She honestly didn't know if she would have made it through without the Leery's, without Dawson.

"You know you can talk to me, Jo. Whatever it is."

"Yeah, I know." Joey sat down at the table, shoving the cell phone into her pocket.

"Today, Jo. Talk to him today."

"Yeah, okay." She didn't quite meet her sister's gaze.

"God damn it Pacey you cut this short."

His father's voice was loud and impatient. Pacey pulled up the board in question and switched it with the one slightly to his right. His dad had been griping all morning about why the hell anyone would do a stupid herringbone pattern when they could just do a plain old deck.

In a way he thought that his dad might be right and it wasn't often that he had thoughts like that but he had a nagging doubt about investing so much money in the deck. He thought that playing up this element would be what would sell the house for the price he wanted but maybe he was allowing personal taste to interfere with business sense. In the world of flipping, you had to keep it neutral.

Pacey and his father surveyed the deck from every angle before they began the task of screwing down the boards. The earlier work had been a challenge almost like a complex puzzle. They both worked in silence in a steady rhythm.

Several times over the past few days he had started to thank his father for coming to help him but then his dad would yell at him and the words were forever lost. Some things never changed.

"Sometimes I wonder why we ever left Capeside."

One afternoon his sophomore year in college he had Googled his father during a particularly boring English literature lecture. He knew that their departure from Capeside was not as simple as a career opportunity in the city. Things in his family never were.

"Your brother is going to take the Captain exam next go round."

"Following in the old Witter footsteps, eh, dad." Pacey had long since given up the animosity he used to feel toward his older brother. He supposed that in every family there was a certain amount of sibling rivalry but in his it had been nourished by the fact that Doug was pretty much perfect and he held the title of family screw up.

"Yep, guess so." His father stood reaching for another bag of screws before settling back into his previous position. "Both my boys going into law, makes an old man proud."

"Tell Doug, I said, good luck." Law school seemed inexplicably linked with Andie. They had made so many plans and sometimes Pacey wondered if law school was his idea at all. He had been a slacker of sorts when Andie had come onto the scene his sophomore year in high school. Without her help he would surely never have been accepted into college at all. Some of her ambition had rubbed off and while he didn't get into Harvard, he had followed her going to Cambridge College.

"You can tell him yourself. He plans to take his vacation to come down and help you with this house and by the looks of things; you can use all the help you can get.

And just like that it was back to the regularly scheduled program.

The walk through town was like some kind of memory lane. There were the swings where she and Dawson had shared their second kiss and many childhood memories. She could almost picture her younger self and all the hope that she had felt.

Screen Play video was now a small sandwich shop. Vaguely she remembered Dawson telling her with an outraged voice that HIS video store was being replaced with a blockbuster. Personally Joey liked the anonymous feel of the blockbuster in the new strip mall at the edge of town, next to Bath and Body Works. Who knew that a town like Capeside could support a Bath and Body Works?

The whole town was like some kind of time warp. Grover Grocery stood on the corner as it had as long as she could remember. A giant ice cream cone whirled above the sign even though the old ice cream counter had been replaced with an expanded beauty section when Joey had been in high school. Now the only ice cream sold was in the frozen isle but in typical Capeside fashion even when things changed, they remained the same.

In some way's she still felt like that "poor Potter girl, too tall girl, from the wrong side of the creek." She had a degree from Worthington in art history and she had believed that and marrying Dawson Leery would somehow transform her. Except that other than the fact that she now had a degree which didn't lead to many job prospects, she felt like the same girl.

And that was when she saw him, right by the peppers that Bodie wanted for his parmesan tilapia that he planned to cook tomorrow. He was wearing a pair of olive cargo shorts with a green Hawaiian shirt that in no way matched his shorts. His brown hair was overdue for a trim and brushed the collar of his shirt. She took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. She had known that she would run into him at some point. After all what did you expect in a town the size of Capeside.

He raised his eyebrows slightly giving her a cocky smile.

She scowled at him. His eyes met hers and she felt a little jolt. She turned away quickly clipping a display of vanilla wafers that had been placed beside the bananas. The tower of yellow boxes fell blocking her path.

"You didn't have to go so far to get my attention." He let out a low laugh, raising his eyebrows twice in a way that she was sure he thought was charming.

She felt heat rising to her face as several shoppers stopped to stare.

"I certainly wasn't trying to get your attention. I was getting peppers and" She brushed a few strands of hair behind her ears trying to regain her composure.

"Your Joey, right?" Bessie had shown him her engagement announcement when it ran in the local paper." Without the Icehouse, I would have starved by now." He shoved the hand into his pocket wondering exactly what he had done to receive a look like that.

"I'm Pacey Witter."

"I know who you are." He heard the contempt in her voice and it wasn't like he hadn't been shot down before. He knew how to take no for an answer or when someone wasn't interested but for a second there he thought he saw interest in her eyes.

"See you around, Potter." He lifted his hand before he turned away.

And he was gone, but her anger remained as she finished her shopping. She concocted a story to tell Dawson about the pompous ass that was entertaining although slightly exaggerated. Then it hit her again that she couldn't simply call up Dawson to have a good laugh.

They had things to discuss that had nothing to do with the guy with poor fashion sense that had outbid her on her Dawson on her old house.

He shrugged his shoulders as he placed his items on the automated strip. It wasn't like he was looking for any complications right now. He only had two months to finish the house before he sold it and left for BUSL. Now wasn't the time to think about a certain brunette with a chip on her shoulder and rock on her finger.


	2. Chapter 2

His eyes scanned the room seeing only unfinished projects and his optimism failed him today. At this very moment it seemed like things would never come together.

Andie had called this morning. She had sounded so happy and he couldn't remember the last time he had heard happiness in her voice .It reminded him that he couldn't make her happy, that his love wasn't enough, and that he had failed. It wasn't that he didn't want her to move on but that didn't stop the dull ache that he felt realizing that he wasn't the one who could make her happy.

He reached into the drawer, pulling out a navy t-shirt that happened to be on top. Noticing too late that there were splatters of paint on the bottom of the shirt, he picked up another shirt only to discover that it had paint on it too. He groaned as he remembered that he had promised Mrs. Leery that her son could come around and take some pictures.

Mrs. Leery had been sort of a one woman welcoming committee. She had steered him in the right direction for both granite countertops and the slate tile that he was putting down in the kitchen. Little price breaks like that were sometimes the difference between making a profit and going over budget. He owed her and he tried to convince himself that today wouldn't be a total loss.

On cue, a silver Lincoln turned into his drive way and he could only assume that this was Dawson. The car stopped pulling to the edge of the lawn, or what Pacey hoped would become the lawn. Later, he would turn his attention to the lawn and add some flowers and landscaping.

He saw the blonde approaching talking animatedly on his cell phone. "It needs to be as close as possible. I'm doing this for you, for us, you know that. I've got to go now, bye." Dawson's voice was curt and a bit too loud.

"Hey, sorry about that." Dawson said putting his phone in the holder on his belt.

"You must be Dawson." Pacey shook his hand and then stepped backward to lean against the railing on the porch.

"Pacey, thanks for letting me film. I appreciate it, man." Dawson was a bit surprised because the house was nothing like he remembered. "_You're taking the worst part of my life and making a movie out of it_." Those words were a blow as he looked at the house and saw it for what it had been.

Dawson knew what he would do. It was simple and it would change everything. He couldn't wait to tell Joey how he would gloss over things—give her a nicer house, take away some of the realities that she had faced. It wouldn't change any of the essential parts of the story. She would still be the "poor" girl that managed to win the affection of town prodigy but he would give her family a different house, maybe a different job for Bessie.

"You don't mind if I set my camera up here and get some shots of the front. This light is priceless and will be gone soon." Looking around he was thankful that Joey's plan of buying this house had fallen through. It had been some kind of crazy idea from the start but she had been set on keeping their family home. Dawson had tried to tell her that it simply wasn't worth keeping but she wouldn't listen to him. Luckily Pacey had gotten stuck with the property instead.

He stood back to look at the kitchen tile, a project that he had expected to complete in a day. Three days later, it was done and now the grout just had to set before he wiped it down with a sponge tomorrow morning. It still bothered him to be behind his original time table but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of satisfaction with the tile.

Pacey glanced at his watch once again and stared at the phone, willing it to ring. The electrician was supposed to call him back today so that he could come out tomorrow. The old house had the original wiring in the bedrooms and bathrooms. So far the electrician never managed to return his calls or make this job a priority. In Boston he would have simply picked up the phone and called the next one in the phone book but in Capeside there were only two in the phone book and the other didn't work on residential properties so he didn't have any options.

The windows were open and he could hear Dawson talking into his video camera. He was slightly annoyed that Dawson was still here. It wasn't that the guy was really in his way but he found their few conversations to have a tedious quality.

"_I'm doing it for us." _Joey kept repeating the words in her mind as she jogged along the sidewalk weaving to avoid the occasional tourist. She thought that a run would help her to think, to get past the anger that she was feeling right now because if she talked to Dawson at the moment she would lose it. She would lose him.

Maybe it wasn't just the movie. Joey had to admit that things hadn't been going well since she had moved to LA. Dawson was disgruntled with a job that he felt wasted his time and talent. Joey was at loose ends, unsure of what to do next now that she had the diploma and the boy.

She turned on a side street almost without thought. It wasn't that they fought all the time but sometimes Joey thought the silence was worse. Lately she had been wondering if it should be so hard. Relationships were hard work; she wasn't someone who expected it to be easy. She just didn't think it should be this tough at every turn.

Dawson hadn't even told her he was back in Capeside. Bessie had come in last night, giggling, asking if anyone had called. Bessie expected some grand romantic gesture from Dawson and she was so sure that she had spoiled it. This morning when there was no call, she called his cell phone and discovered that he was going to her old house to film.

She could almost picture Dawson walking around her old house, taking pictures, changing things into his own reality. She had always liked his imagination because it took her away from her own life, which was often painful. With him she had been able to hide, to pretend, to be normal.

She slowed to a walk as she walked down the gravel drive. Mrs. Leery's car was in the driveway. Looking at the house she felt a small twinge. Dawson was sitting on the porch sharing a beer with the new owner.

"Hey, Jo."

"Have you met Pacey? Pacey this is my fiancé, Joey."

Dawson often did this. He would forget arguments and pretend that all was well. Their pattern was to simply move on except that lately she felt that they weren't moving at all. "Yes, we've met." Her voice was tense.

"I should have known. How could you not in a town like Capeside."Dawson threw his head back and laughed.

"I was just telling Pac." He gave her a look hoping that she would understand that this was neither the time nor the place to finish their argument.

"Pacey, I really need to talk to Dawson. If you could excuse us." She offered him a small, embarrassed half smile before turning to Dawson.

"Yeah, sure. Good luck with your movie, man." Pacey held up his beer and gave a sort of wave with the bottle before going inside.

Through the open windows he could hear almost every word. He thought that it was wrong to listen but it was kind of a like a train wreck but if he walked over to close the windows then he would draw attention to himself and they would realize that he could hear everything.

"It's our story, Joey. Yours, mine---soul mates. Look, its right here, carved in this very tree."

"Dawson, have you heard anything that I've said?" She couldn't believe that he was pointing to some stupid tree that he had carved what felt like a lifetime ago.

"I've figured it out. I know how to do this without hurting you. Things can be glossed over. I'll change the house. You just tell me what you want me leave out." He looked at her hopefully.

"It all hurts, Dawson." A tear slipped down her cheek.

"I've explained countless times why I don't want you to do this movie and you just bulldoze on." She wiped her tears hating that she was crying. "It's like you don't even care."

"I've already pitched it. It's going to be a big hit, Joey. This is my chance, our chance." He stepped toward her reaching out to her.

"Don't" She pulled away, his hand brushing her shoulder but not quite making contact.

She tugged the ring off her left hand. "We have had so many chances, Dawson. Don't you wonder why it didn't work?" She placed the ring in his hand folding his hand over it.

"Joey, you can't." He exhaled and mumbled something that Pacey couldn't understand. Their voices were now hushed, the anger gone.

"Don't you get it? You've made our life into some kind of fantasy and I can't even tell what is real anymore."

"We're real .We're meant to be together."

"Well than why can't we ever make it work. Did you ever ask yourself that, Dawson?" Joey didn't even try to stop the tears now.

He handed the ring back to her. "We've had our ups and downs before and we always found our way back to one another. That has to say something, take it."

"No. Joey, please." He pleaded, his voice taking on a whiney quality.

"I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to constantly be fifteen. I want to move on." She turned her back toward him, walking away.

"We can move on together." He said the words to her back knowing that this wasn't the time to push the issue.

She simply shook her head and kept walking toward the pier almost out of habit, for a second forgetting that this was not her home. She sat down hugging her knees to her chest, staring at the water.

Dawson walked onto the front porch, feeling slightly defeated. He knocked on the door although all he wanted to do was get in his car and go home. Joey was right that sometimes Capeside could make him feel fifteen. He had that same feeling that his heart had been ripped out of his chest that he did when he was fifteen and Joey had first broken up with him. He asked Pacey to make sure that she got home, knowing that it would b e better to just go.

Pacey could see her small shadow still sitting on the pier. After Dawson left he had given her a while to pull herself together.

He loved this time in the evening when darkness was closing in. The night added a sense of beauty and hid the flaws that he saw at every turn during the day. It was the only time when he could truly relax.

The old wood creaked under his feet as he approached her, clearing his throat. "Hey." He sat down careful not to accidentally touch her in any way.

She brushed her long brown hair out of her eyes, slightly embarrassed. "You heard."

He thought about denying it. "Yeah, not all but enough to get the gist."

She rested her forehead in the palm of her hand.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Yeah." Her voice was shaky.

He wanted to tell her that he knew what it was like to sit on a pier and feel like you had lost everything. He wanted to tell her that each day you woke up and the pain faded a little. "Ya know, I lived in Capeside until I was three." Where had that come from?

"Yeah." She swung her feet back and forth, right above the water. He couldn't see the expression on her face. "Lucky for me, I guess." Her tone was flat like she didn't have any emotion left for sarcasm.

"We could have been friends. You never know, stranger things have happened."

"Enemies, most likely." She wiped her eyes, holding her shoulders a little straighter, pulling herself together.

"You're probably right." He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder. "It looks like you could use a friend at the moment and that you can't be too picky."

He felt her shoulders shake slightly and stood reaching out his hand to her. "Come on, I'll take you home. Bessie and Bodie will be worried."

She took his hand and instead of dropping it after she stood, she held on his long fingers giving a sense of security that she needed so badly right now.

"Yeah." He exhaled leaning back to look at the stars." Come on, I'll take you home."

She followed him surprised when he led her to his truck. If he wouldn't have stopped her she would have walked back into her old house. Joey started thinking about how she didn't really have a home anymore, not here or in LA.


End file.
